Laser beam melting 3D printing of Ti6Al4V based porous structured dental implants: fabrication, biocompatibility analysis and photoelastic study

Abstract

Fabricating Ti alloy based dental implants with defined porous scaffold structure is a promising strategy for improving the osteoinduction of implants. In this study, we use Laser Beam Melting (LBM) 3D printing technique to fabricate porous Ti6Al4V dental implant prototypes with three controlled pore sizes (200, 350 and 500 μm). The mechanical stress distribution in the surrounding bone tissue is characterized by photoelastography and associated finite element simulation. For in-vitro studies, experiments on implants’ biocompatibility and osteogenic capability are conducted to evaluate the cellular response correlated to the porous structure. As the preliminary results, porous structured implants show a lower stress-shielding to the surrounding bone at the implant neck and a more densed distribution at the bottom site compared to the reference implant. From the cell proliferation tests and the immunofluorescence images, 350 and 500 μm pore sized implants demonstrate a better biocompatibility in terms of cell growth, migration and adhesion. Osteogenic genes expression of the 350 μm group is significantly increased alone with the ALP activity test. All these suggest that a pore size of 350 μm provides an optimal provides an optimal potential for improving the mechanical shielding to the surrounding bones and osteoinduction of the implant itself.

The Influence of Selective Laser Melting (SLM) Process Parameters on In-Vitro Cell Response

“…Another pro is that 3D printers with production process in the powder bed allow for reusing the utilized powder and reduction in waste quantities that would arise during conventional fabrication methods such as Computerized Numerical Control (CNC) cutting. Numerous literature reports show successfully printed dental [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ], craniofacial [ 10 , 11 , 12 ] and orthopedic implants [ 13 , 14 , 15 ] using selective laser melting (SLM) and electron beam melting (EBM) technologies. The SLM stands out because in enables fabrication of very fine structures with complex internal architectures and overhangs with precision and shape fidelity higher than the EBM [ 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”

Dendritic Scaffold onto Titanium Implants. A Versatile Strategy Increasing Biocompatibility

“…The premise was that the method should be tunable, offering the possibility of attaching different moieties according to specific needs, and should also be stable in order to resist the harsh conditions of the in vivo environment, particularly in the oral cavity. We opted for Ti 6 Al 4 V ELI alloy because it is widely used in the dental implant industry [36], and chose 3D-printed Ti 6 Al 4 V ELI pieces because metal 3D printing techniques are opening the field of implantology to increasingly improved designs in order to tackle the biomechanical issue [37][38][39].…”

Surface-Modified Industrial Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene 3D Scaffold Fabrication by Gold Nanoparticle for Drug Screening

“…Indeed, the cultured osteosarcoma cell line MG-63 exhibited more successful proliferation and osteoconduction with only 30% porosity in comparison to the 50% porosity scaffold groups. Yang et al investigated the optimal pore size (200, 350, or 500 µm) of bone tissue implants and found that the 350 µm scaffolds exhibited a better expression level of osteogenic genes [34]. In addition, the optimal pore size for ligament tissue ingrowth in braided ligament scaffolds in PLAGA 10:90 braids was found to be between 175 and 233 µm [35].…”